Reviewer's Guide for Windows Home Serverdownload.microsoft.com/.../WindowsHomeServerReviewersGuide.pdf · Reviewer's Guide for Windows Home Server Microsoft Corporation ... Abstract

Reviewer's Guide for

Windows Home Server

Microsoft Corporation

Published: July, 2007

Doc. Version: 1.0

Abstract This Reviewer's Guide provides a detailed overview of the features and

functionality of the Windows®

Home Server software.

2 Windows Home Server Reviewer’s Guide

Contents

Introduction ............................................................................................................ 3

Windows Home Server Product Features ........................................................ 5 Home Computer Backup and Restore ........................................................... 5

Shared Folders and Server Storage .............................................................. 7

Remote Access ............................................................................................... 10

Enabling Remote Access ............................................................................... 13 Home Network Health Monitoring ................................................................ 16

Media Sharing .................................................................................................. 17

Windows Home Server Console ................................................................... 18

Third Party Add-ins ......................................................................................... 20

The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication. This White Paper is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT. Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express written permission of Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject matter in this document. Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from Microsoft, the furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property.

Unless otherwise noted, the companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted in examples herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, e-mail address, logo, person, place, or event is intended or should be inferred.

© 2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Server, Windows Vista, and Xbox 360 are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. UPnP is a certification mark of the UPnP Implementers Corporation. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.


Introduction

Windows® Home Server helps families simplify the way they keep and share

their documents, photos, videos, and music. Windows® Home Server brings it all

together for families with multiple personal computers.and music.

Protect

Windows Home Server automatically backs up your home computers. Computers

and individual files can be easily restored. Additionally, computer health

monitoring allows you to see the health of computers running Windows Vista® in

your home. You will know if your anti-virus programs and other system software

are up-to-date.

Connect

Every member of the family can access what they need on the home server from

another computer in the house. You can also share information with faraway

friends and family through a personalized Web address, or access your own files

from a computer with a Web browser when you’re away from home.

Organize

Your family photos, videos and music, and other important documents are

together in one central place. Folders can be created by subject or topic, so your

family can stay organized and up-to-date.

Grow

You can simply connect a new hard drive to Windows Home Server as your

storage needs increase. Also, application developers can create innovative

Windows Home Server Add-Ins to expand the functionality of your home server.

For example, Add-ins can be created for home automation, home webcams, media

sharing, and home security solutions, Windows Home Server will be part of the

family today—and in the future.

Windows Home Server is simple to set up and easy to use. It provides a reliable,

familiar way for families to stay connected, whether they’re in the next room or

across the country.


The Windows Home Server Getting Started Guide provides the following

information:

Before you Begin

o System Requirements

o Network Requirements

o Supported Operating Systems for Home Computers

Setup

o Windows Home Server Setup

o Windows Home Server Connector Software

Quick Configuration

o User Accounts

o Shared Folders

o Computer Backups

o Server Storage

o Windows Home Server Settings

Troubleshooting

Product Support

Also, please refer to the Windows Home Server help files for additional details on

the features and functionality of Windows Home Server.


Windows Home Server Product Features

Home Computer Backup and Restore Windows

Home Server will automatically back up your home computers to the

home server and allow you to easily restore the entire computer or an individual

file or folder to a previous point in time. The Windows Home Server Backup

solution uses an innovative method to back up only the data that has not already

been backed up before. Even if you have several copies of the same data on

different computers, the data is backed up only once on your home server and

your home server keeps track of what data was stored on each home computer on

each day. This makes it very efficient in terms of the time it takes for backups to

complete and also the amount of space that is used on your home server.

Figure 1: Computers & Backup tab in Windows Home Server Console


Automated Daily Backup of your Home Computers Computer backups are automatically configured when you install the

Windows Home Server Connector software on your computers. Backup is

performed on a daily basis for every configured computer.

Restore an Entire Home Computer Restoring a home computer to a previous point in time is easy. If you want to

restore your computer to a previous point in time, you boot the home

computer from the Home Computer Restore CD. The computer will connect

to your home server and provide a simple wizard for restoring a single hard

drive or multiple hard drives from a backup of that computer that is stored on

your home server.

Restore Individual Files and Folders You can also restore individual files or folders by selecting a home computer

and a specific backup of that computer from the Windows Home Server

Console application. A Windows Explorer window is displayed with the files

and folders that were backed up for that computer on that day. You can easily

drag and drop individual files or entire folders from this Windows Explorer

window and store them on your Windows Desktop or another location on your

home computer.

Figure 2: Backup Settings


Shared Folders and Server Storage Windows

Home Server Drive Extender is a revolutionary new storage technology

that enables you to use internal and/or external hard drives of varying sizes for

additional storage on your home server. In addition, the person who administers

Windows Home Server can enable Folder Duplication for specific Shared Folders

on their home server, so two copies of a shared folder exist.

Pre-Defined Shared Folders Your home server is pre-configured with the following shared folders:

Photos, Music, Videos, Public, and Software. From the Windows Home

Server Console you can specify the user permissions for these folders and

create any number of new shared folders.

Easy to Add More Storage From the Windows

Home Server Console you can add a new hard drive to

your Server Storage using a simple wizard. The amount of storage available to

your shared folders and home computer backups increases proportionally. The

hard drives you add can be either internal or external (e.g. USB 2.0 or

FireWire).

Figure 3: Shared Folders tab in Windows Home Server Console


Shared Folder Duplication If you have two or more hard drives in your home server, Windows Home

Server helps protect against hard drive failures by ensuring that files stored in

shared folders are automatically duplicated across multiple hard drives.

Duplication is configurable on a per shared folder basis, so a given shared

folder has two copies, with each one being stored on a separate hard drive.

Figure 4: Server Storage tab in Windows Home Server Console


What makes Windows Home Server Shared Folders and Storage unique?

Allows easy addition of more hard drives As you add more hard drives to your home server, they are represented in

Server Storage as a single large collection of available storage space. You no

longer need to deal with E:, F:, G:, etc. drive letters as you add more hard

drives.

Works with both internal and external hard drives You can grow the amount of available storage by adding either internal or

external (e.g. USB 2.0 or Firewire) hard drives to your home server.

Shared Folder Duplication Supports reliability by duplication of designated shared folders – so important

data will be stored on separate hard drives helping to provide protection

against hard drive failure. Duplication is configurable on a per shared folder

basis, so a given shared folder can have multiple copies, with each one being

stored on a separate hard drive.

Easy to remove hard drives It is also easy to remove hard drives through the Windows Home Server

Console. The files and folders on the hard drive are automatically moved to

other hard drives in Server Storage so that over time you can remove the

older, smaller hard drives.


Remote Access After you have turned Remote Access on and configured a user account for

Remote Access using the Windows Home Server Console, you can use a web

browser on a computer from outside your home to access your home server and

home computers remotely.

There are three things a user can do from the remote access interface:

Remote Access to Shared Folders Users can download files and folders, and upload one or more files to the

shared folders on their home server while away from home. You can also

search through the Shared Folders when you are trying to locate a specific file

or files.

Remote Access to Home Computers Connect remotely to the computers in your home. Run an application as if

you were sitting in front of your home computer.

Figure 5: Remote Access Home page


Remotely Connect to the Windows Home Server Console

If the need arises, you can access the Windows Home Server Console while

away from home to add new users, add new shared folders or check the health

of your home network.

Figure 6: Remote Access Shared Folders page


What makes Remote Access unique?

Remote Access to Home Computers After logging into your home server, you can quickly connect to a home

computer and run an application as if you were sitting in front of that

computer.

Personalized Internet Address You can register for a personalized Internet address so that you can remotely

access your home server using your personalized Internet address (e.g.

http://<your_name>.HomeServer.com/home)

Remote access permissions set for each user

You can define up to 10 users and for each user it is easy to enable or disable

the ability to remotely connect to your home server.

Figure 7: Remote Access Computers page


Enabling Remote Access By default, Remote Access is disabled for your home server. To enable Remote

Access, open the Windows Home Server Console, choose Settings, and then

Remote Access. There are 3 simple steps that you need to complete to make your

home server remotely accessible from outside your home.

Figure 8: Remote Access Settings page


1. Web Site Connectivity should be Turned On. This will open up the three

network ports (80,443, 4125) on the Window Home Server Firewall so

that incoming requests from the internet can be accepted by your home

server.

2. Router Configuration. In this step, your Windows Home Server will

attempt to configure the persistent port forwarding from your UPnP-

enabled Router. If it is successful, the following TCP ports will be

forwarded from your router:

Port 80 – http:// Web Requests

Port 443 – https:// Web Requests (Secure Sockets Layer)

Port 4125 – Remote Desktop Proxy

3. Domain Name. The last step is to select a personalized domain name for

your home server (e.g. SmithFamily.homeserver.com). The wizard will

prompt you to enter your Windows Live ID details and then allow you to

select a domain name for your home server.

Important

Some Broadband Providers have policies that either restrict or prohibit the use

of your broadband connection for accessing a home server. Please check with

your Broadband Provider to determine their specific terms of use.

Windows Home Server includes a built-in Dynamic DNS client that binds your

personalized domain name to your external IP address assigned by your

broadband provider.

Tip

Not all broadband routers properly support the UPnP protocol that is required

for Windows Home Server to automatically configure your router. The

Internet Connectivity Evaluation Tool checks your router to see if it supports

certain technologies. You can use this tool on a PC running either the

Windows Vista or Windows XP operating system. The tool is available at:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/using/tools/igd.

If your router does not pass these tests, then you will need to manually

forward the TCP ports (80, 443, and 4125) from your router to the IP address

of your Windows Home Server. To determine, the IP address of your home

server on your home network, type ―Ping <servername>‖ from a command

prompt from one of your PCs. For additional assistance, refer to the

documentation provided with your broadband router.

In addition to configuring Remote Access through the Settings, you will need to

define one or more user accounts that can be used to remotely login to your home

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/using/tools/igd


server while away from home. User accounts with Remote Access enabled must

have a Strong password. The Strong password policy requires complex

passwords that are at least 7 characters long and contain at least three of the

following four character categories:

Uppercase letters

Lowercase letters

Numbers

Symbols (such as !, @, #, etc.)

Tip

For improved security try to choose long, complex user names and long,

complex passwords for your user accounts that have Remote Access enabled.

After you have configured Remote Access, you can test your connectivity from

within your home and outside of your home. Try the following tests from one of

your home computers to see if Remote Access is properly configured and working

properly within your home:

http://<server_name>/home - connects over your home network to the

Windows Home Server Home Page of your home server using port 80

https://<server-name>/remote - connects over your home network to the

Windows Home Server Remote Access login page using a Secure Socket

Layer connection using port 443. The information passed between the

home server and the PC over this connection is encrypted.

The following tests can be run from one of your personal computers when you are

outside of your home and have access to an internet connection. These tests will

check if your personalized internet domain (e.g. SmithFamily.HomeServer.com)

that you registered during the 3rd

step of Enabling Remote Access, is configured

and working properly:

http://<your_name>.HomeServer.com/home - connects over the internet to

your home server using port 80, you should see the Windows Home

Server Home Page.

https://<your_name>.HomeServer.com/remote - connects over the internet

to your home server using port 443, you should see the Windows Home

Server Remote Access login page.


Home Network Health Monitoring Windows

Home Server monitors its own health status and the status of your

computers that are running Windows Vista, and it notifies you of any issues or

problems that are found. Windows Home Server monitors the following health

information:

Home Computer Backups

Monitors that your home computers are being backed up on a regular basis

and that the backups are completing successfully.

Server Storage and Shared Folder Duplication

Monitors the hard drives in your home server and helps ensure that the shared

folders that have enabled Folder Duplication have enough space on your hard

disk drives to store two copies of the shared folder.

Security Center Status for Windows Vista

Collects the Security Center status from your home computers running

Windows Vista and helps you centrally monitor the health status of your

computers from the Windows Home Server Console.

The tray application provides you with a high-level indicator of the health of your

home network. The icon can change to the following colors:

Green – your home network is healthy

Yellow – your home network is at risk

Red – your home server has found a critical problem

Blue – this computer is currently being backed up to your home server

If a problem is found, you can connect to the Windows Home Server Console to

get more detailed information.


Media Sharing Your home server is pre-configured with the following shared folders that can be

used to store your media files: Photos, Music, and Videos. Additionally, these

shared folders can be enabled for media streaming from the Windows Home

Server Console. You can selectively turn on ―Media Library Sharing‖ for each of

these shared folders so that your music, photos, and/or videos can be accessible

from an Xbox 360™ entertainment system or another supported digital media

receiver that is attached to your home network.

View Photo Slideshows from a Home PC

You can store your digital photos in the Photos shared folder on your home

server so you access them from your home computers or from an Xbox 360 in

your home.

Figure 9: Media Sharing Settings


Stream Music in your Home

Similarly, you can store your music on your home server so you can access

and play it from your home computers or a digital music receiver on your

home network.

Store your Videos on your Home Server

Your home server can be used to store your collections of videos and recorded

TV from a computer running Windows Media Center.

Windows Home Server Console The Windows Home Server Console is the application used to configure your

home server. It is not intended to be used by everyone in the household.

You access the Console from any computer that has the Windows Home Server

Connector software installed by double-clicking the Windows Home Server task

bar icon. When you run the console application it will ask you for the home

server password and then will connect to your home server.

Figure 10: Configuring User Permissions for Shared Folders


The Windows Home Server Console provides you the ability to:

View the Backup Status of your Home Computers The Computers & Backup tab allows you to view the backup status and

configure backups on the computers where you have installed the Windows

Home Server Connector software.

Configure User Accounts The User Accounts tab allows you to add up to 10 user accounts. You can

change the shared folders that users have access to and enable remote access

for each user. Each user will automatically be provided with a shared folder

that only they (by default) have access to (e.g. \\server\users\jeff).

Configure Shared Folders The Shared Folders tab allows you to add and remove shared folders and

change properties of shared folders. If you have two or more hard drives in

your home server, when you create a new folder, you can select Enable

Folder Duplication so two copies of the shared folder will exist on separate

hard drives.

Configure Server Storage

The Server Storage tab allows you to view, add, and remove hard drives on

your home server. You can see the status of your server storage, and attempt

to repair any hard drives that show a status of Unhealthy. You can also see a

graphical representation of the total disk space usage on your home server.

View the Health Status of your Home Network The Network Health indicator provides you with Healthy, At Risk and

Critical health notifications for your home server, and your home computers.

Adjust Server Settings You can change the configuration settings for your home server, such as:

Windows Update settings, Computer Backup settings, Password policy, and

the date and time. Additionally, you will find the ability to restart your home

server.


Third Party Add-ins Windows Home Server is based on the proven technologies of the Microsoft

Windows Server® operating system and is designed to be a platform upon which

other solutions can be developed.

Your Home Server Can Do More Windows Home Server has been designed with extensibility in mind, so that

software developers can develop innovative Add-Ins, such as home web

cameras, family information management software, home automation and

home security solutions that work with your home server.

Large Ecosystem of Software and Hardware Partners Microsoft has partners throughout the world that have built and are continuing

to build new software and hardware solutions that work with Microsoft

Windows software. As these partners become familiar with Windows Home

Server, we will probably see solutions delivered that will enhance the

usefulness and functionality of your home server.

For the latest information on Windows Home Server, please visit the product web

site at http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer.

The Windows Home Server team blog is also a useful source of news, insights

and information, it is available at: http://blogs.technet.com/homeserver/

http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer

http://blogs.technet.com/homeserver/

Documents

Reviewer's Guide for Windows Home Serverdownload.microsoft.com/.../WindowsHomeServerReviewersGuide.pdf · Reviewer's Guide for Windows Home Server Microsoft Corporation ... Abstract